Images of the future:
MedellĂn River Parks Project What does it mean to be a pedestrian in Latin American cities? What is it like to inhabit a city like MedellĂn and experience it, literally, with your feet on the ground? Or on a bike? How can a city balance its accelerated rhythm, its fast lanes and its structure, mainly planned out for vehicles, with the slow pace of its pedestrians? Modern cities were initially not planned for pedestrians or for people to enjoy their spaces. They were designed for transit, not as a place to rest. Because of this, it is not uncommon
that being a pedestrian or a frequent user of public transport may sometimes seem like it requires suicidal practices. It isn’t that you can not walk around the city, you can, but you usually do so by acting defensively, exceedingly on the watch for danger. An urban body is a body at risk, it is a hurried body which is not able to calmly enjoy places ... an urban body in the city, with the differences that you may observe from citizen to citizen, is a body that has no place, it is a body whose semantic space is always vague.
In the global context, it is estimated that the population of cities has reached 3.700 million people and it is said that over the next 40 years, this number will double. It is estimated that from 2015 to 2050, the urban population will increase from 52 to 75 percent (*). Medellin, of course, is no stranger to this problem.
In the past, the exponential growth of the population and the limited possibilities of expansion that many cities in the world face inspired functionalist interventions, which were detrimental to the environmental perspective. Examples of this were the covering of streams and rivers, the construction of second and third levels of roads and so forth, all responses to mobility problems that impair the quality of life of the city’s inhabitants, landscape conditions and natural resources, among others. Today cities like Seoul (Korea), Paris (France), Madrid (Spain), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Cartagena and Cali (Colombia), among others, have been working on urban renewal projects that propose the environmental, social and cultural renovation of sources of water as structural axes of urban life, envisioning a more sustainable mobility, discouraging the use of private transport and prioritizing opportunities to access and enjoy a quality public space. In this context an initiative is conceived to recover the Medellín river as a structuring axis of the city and the Medellín River Parks project appeared as part of the flagship programs of the Development Plan "Medellin: a home for life" 2012-2015 led by Mayor Aníbal Gaviria Correa. The project’s main objective is to boost the Medellín River’s potential as an environmental and public space axis in the region and the city,
optimizing its current role as the principal axis of transit, making it an element to structure and integrate the different planning systems and making it a space for the gathering and enjoyment of the public. MedellĂn River Parks is set on improving spaces for those walking or riding bikes, and turning the river, as it was once, in a place to hang out. The objectives of the River Parks project are also in accordance with the new formulation of the Land Use Plan where issues regarding the organization of the city, framed in relation to territorial attributes, are considered: main ecological structure, system utilities, mobility in the city (both vehicular and pedestrian), the need for infrastructure and equipment for public use and enjoyment.
It also poses a particular concern regarding public system spatial issues and housing policy, which tends to present solutions to the problem of population growth in the city, re-densifying areas surrounding the river. What are the chances of re-densification of housing in a city like ours? In the case of Medellin, our city has 106.78 km2 of urban land, a rural land of 268.87 km2 and an area for expansion of 4.69 km2, these possibilities are limited. In the interests of sustainability, it is proposed that the city grows in height, in a compact and dense manner, along the axis of the river. In his current Government Plan, AnĂbal Gaviria Correa, has given strength to this project viewing it as a challenge that involves the public sector, the private sector and citizens. Bringing life back to the river, and bringing the river back to the city and its inhabitants becomes the primary goal of the MedellĂn River Park project.
In the end, the idea is to recover the semantic and vital space of the city and the river, which is why water decontamination has become a major issue on the public agenda: EPM has taken steps for the sanitation of the river and its tributaries since the entity was created as an autonomous municipal entity in 1955. The Medellin River Parks project becomes a possibility to restore the river and bring it back to the city and its inhabitants. What at first was defined as a road project today is a comprehensive project that seeks to provide an efficient and sustainable response to environmental issues, as well as issues of mobility (motorized and non-motorized), and public space in the city. The MedellĂn River Parks project is aimed at bringing people to experience the river and not just remember it as it was. It is about embracing it as part of the city and everyday life, slower rhythms that allow the enjoyment of the city’s spaces.